Hangzhou - 8th Sept 2010 (Day 1 Part 2 )

"Above is heaven, below is Hangzhou" goes a famous Chinese saying that pretty well describes the glamorous city of Hangzhou! With its amazing scenery and fascinating cultural attractions, Hangzhou is indeed heaven on earth!

The brimming waves delight the eye on sunny days.
The dimming hills give a rare view in rainy haze.
The West Lake looks like the fair lady at her best.
Whether she is richly adorned or plainly dressed.
By Su Dongpo (Song Dynasty)

Marco Polo once called Hangzhou, “the most beautiful and magnificent city in the world”.

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Above are just some of the glowing descriptions you will find on the web when one Googles for Hangzhou.

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We arrived in Hangzhou during the peak after office hour rush. The first taxi we hailed didn't want to take us to where our hotel was located stating traffic congestion in that area.

You cannot imagine the number of people and vehicles on the street outside the railway station. With the engine smog, vehicles zooming past, people rushing by & the sun beating down on us, we finally found a taxi that would take us......for a hefty sum of RMB60! We later found out that our hotel wasn't that far away.....so I guess we've been had.....but at that time, we were willing to pay the sum just to get away from the chaos & the stifling heat!

During the taxi ride, the driver asked us why we chose to put up at Crystal Orange Hotel? He said it was way out of the areas of interest in Hangzhou. He made it sound as though we had booked ourselves into a hotel wayyyyyy out of the tourist path. Again, we found out later that our hotel was just as strategic as any other, depending on what one wanted to see of course. And our aim was to visit the West Lake. This was just 5-10 mins walking distance from where we lived. I shouldn't have doubted my choice as I'd done considerable research online before booking our accommodations.

Allan asked him how much he would charge us for when we needed to get to the airport the day after. He replied: RMB150. The hotel ordered a cab for us on the day of our departure. The cab fare to the airport came to only RMB94!

Crystal Orange Hotel (that's Soo walking towards the entrance)

View from Soo's balcony.

Aaahhhh.....this is the life! lol :)

By the time we had checked in, it was past 6pm. We agreed to meet up again at 8. Meantime, I took a shower & rested. The room was clean, comfortably spacious & the bathroom had both a shower & a long bath. A glass wall separated the bathroom from the sleeping area so one could watch television while chilling in the long bath. Or one could choose to pull down the shades for some privacy to complete one's toilette. ;)

View of the bathroom through the glass window, from the sleeping area

I read through my print out of places to visit in Hangzhou under subtitles like Dining.... Shopping..... Sight-seeing.... etc and focused on Shopping!, what else? haha

There's a night market along Yan'an Rd opened every night and a good place to get local stuff. The write-up warned that the prices there are marked up, up to 3 times for foreigners & 2 times even if you have a local Hangzhou friend with you.

We planned to pay the street a visit after dinner. The hotel concierge told us that we could get some local cuisine at He Fang Jie, and he gave us directions how to get there. It was close enough to get there on our own bipeds, so we walked & took in the night scene along the way.

Upon approaching our destination, we heard music and saw lights that hinted at an exciting treat up ahead. Our interest piqued, we quickened our pace.

We rounded a corner & right ahead of us was a square (from where the music was coming) & people dancing!..... line dancing! How fabulous! They weren't doing any line dances that we knew but the steps were familiar.....shuffles, back rock, forward rock, coaster steps.....it was line dancing! And there were at least 300 people in that square.

Line Dancing in Hangzhou. The 'toot toot' you hear at the end of the clip

is a motorcyclist signaling me to move out of her way :)

Name of the square I think.

Stalls along the street leading to He Fang Jie

Beyond the square was He Fang Jie (河坊街), a popular tourist spot. The entire stretch of road has old chinese architecture on both sides, housing various shops selling souvenirs, silk apparels, loong jeng tea (dragon well tea), snacks, etc. We were so taken in by the cultural atmosphere & promise of discoveries that we totally gave up on going to the Yan'an night market.

This street is also well-known for it's local snacks, so we headed to a food court in search of our dinner.

Entrance to the food court

This young lady was outside the foodcourt promoting the place

Stalls along the perimeter & in the centre selling their snacks.

It was very stuffy in the food court. Some local men had their T-shirts

rolled all the way to their chests exposing their big bellies :)

Samples of what we ate

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an artisan at work, sugar sculpting

his creations

In old China, there being no clocks, people were told the time by a man such as this one.

He walks through the dark streets, holding a lantern for light,

clanging on his 'cymbal' and shouts out the time, every hour, on the hour.

How does he know what time it is? You'll have to ask him :)

Another artisan at work, weaving leaves into beautiful creations

Animals & mythical creatures woven from leaves

A typical chinese medical hall

A shop selling 'dragon beard' candy

A man hammering on part of the ingredient that goes into the candy

A side street

Another type of candy. Very sweet & hard.

Glass blower

Lovely facade of a restaurant

Some typical local snacks.

They even have a dish consisting of nothing but the goose's head.

Nice gazebo

A tea house

Get one's photo taken, in costume!

What an interesting evening we've had. So glad to have 'accidentally' discovered this place. I think we'll be back for more before we leave Hangzhou.

Hangzhou - 8th Sept 2010 (Day 1 Part 1 )

At 7am, Jo & John Kinser knocked on our door to say goodbye. They would be leaving with the rest of the WOW participants (those who signed up) for the tour to several major cities in China, ending in Beijing. We had spent close to 7 days in the same quarters with them & now consider them our friends. I hate goodbyes.... BUT! thank goodness for the world wide web. We'll be able to stay in touch :)

At about 10am Soo arrived and after depositing her luggage in the apartment, we headed to our favourite restaurant for brunch.

The front of the restaurant

Delicious meats beckoning passers-by to step-in for a meal

The interior. There's a staircase on the right leading to the upper floor.

Hmmm....what should we try today? Choices, choices, choices.....

We wrapped up lunch at about eleven-ish. Went back to the apartment unit to collect our luggage & then came downstairs to arrange our checkout. It had been a pleasant stay. Allan asked the person at the counter how much they usually rented out the place, but was told they do not normally rent it on a daily basis. All units are for monthly rental only. We had thought to stay here again should we return for a visit to Shanghai. Looks like we'd have to look elsewhere for lodgings.

At the entrance, the security guard helped order us a taxi via his wireless. He has seen us going in and out for the past few days but we never had a chance to chat. While waiting for the taxi to arrive, Allan chatted with him and found that he had taken on many jobs before this, one of them being a baker. His goal is to earn enough money to take back to his village (I forget where now) to start his own business selling motorised bicycles (they're very common here). A man with a goal. Good for him & we wish him every success.

Me & Wu Yuet Tong (the guard)

The 3 of us had decided earlier to experience the speed train from Shanghai to Hangzhou. We got a taxi to Shanghai South Railway Station. The entire station is round in shape, not the usual square or rectangle. It looked very modern & very much like the interior of an airport terminal. There were lots & lots of people. My husband once remarked that in Shanghai you're never ever alone. At any one time, there are at least 5 to 10 people around you....lol.

Busy, busy, busy....

Ticket counters. Long queue for each & every counter.

It was 12:30pm and the next available train to Hangzhou was at slightly past 3pm. All seats between 12 and 3pm were sold out. We had about 3hours to kill. We browsed through the shops, bought some snacks and drinks & chit-chatted till it was time to board the train.

There is no queue system in China. It is every man/woman for himself. When the gates opened for the passengers to take the stairs or elevator down to the railway line one floor below, everyone rushed forward. We didn't understand why since our ticket has got seat numbers printed on it so we were assured of a seat. A little later on, we found out the reason for the mad rush.

The train has many carriages to cater for the huge number of passengers (so it is quite a distance from one end to the other), but only so much waiting/boarding time before it must depart punctually & on the dot. Our carriage (No. 6) was right at the front. The elevator had deposited us at around the teens. We dragged our luggages along looking for our number all the time wondering why people were hurrying past us. Then we heard the whistle & the conductor waving for us to hurry. It was a universal language....no translation was needed to tell us that the train was closing its doors soon & leaving! I was still at carriage 10, and there were two carriages to each number! I must have broken my own record for the 100 metre sprint (with my luggage in tow) LOL!

Soo & Allan were behind me but I didn't look back. I just concentrated on pushing ahead & getting into my carriage before the doors closed on me. I managed to get into No. 6 and only then did I look back for them. Panic gripped me when they were nowhere in sight. Calm down I told myself, they must have gotten into one of the carriages before No. 6 and they're making their way through the carriages right now.

I looked for my seat & waited for them, all the while panting due to the recent exertion & adrenalin surge. True enough, and to my relief, they appeared as the train was pulling out of the station. Phew! what an experience! Quite funny now on hindsight.

View from the train

The interior. Seats were comfortable & clean

The highest recorded speed of the train

The drama over, we could now sit back & doze for a bit until we arrive at Hangzhou Station in approximately 1 hour & 45 minutes.

Part 2: Arrival in Hangzhou